Self

Japan is all about conformity. Fitting in. Doing what you're supposed to.

Being on JET is all about being an ambassador. You represent your country. What you do reflects on your country, as well, and you are always being watched, like a hawk.

Or should I say an eagle?

For someone like me, this has been very hard to become accustomed to. I have always been a weird guy, even in my own country, and even among my own immediate family. I have found myself constantly telling my students and JTEs that I am not a "normal American." I don't watch football, I don't even play sports. I don't like the latest pop trends. I don't really follow politics all that closely outside of what's common knowledge. I don't eat hamburgers and pizza, really. I know that we're supposed to do that all the time, but I don't really do that at all, or very rarely.

Japan loves fitting in. But I've noticed something peculiar. Humans are the same everywhere, so you have your misfits and loners here, too. They're just pressured to join the group more closely. So they clam up, play their role, and open up to you very fiercely if you let them. Like they were waiting for their moment to be set free.

I have a student who loves cryptozoology. I have a student who's way into niche anime and manga. I have a student who won't talk to anyone, but if you share his interest in One Piece (a manga) he won't stop talking, so glad to be set free. Once I let them know I was willing to listen to them about their interests, they weren't only willing to talk about them, but eager to. They barrel into paragraphs about them whenever I see them now.

Extremely popular in Japan, my students always love hearing that I follow this series.

You hear about it all the time. Japan is all about the atmosphere, the group mentality, the 和, the need to belong. But people are the same everywhere, and individuality blooms in other ways in this sort of culture. Restrained, restricted, so restricted that when set free, it's enormously powerful.

I think this is why Japanese media is so popular. Everything is dramatic, over-acted, played up to extreme proportions. The inner self, the creative spirit being set loose from strong restraints.

As an ambassador of western culture, I can't represent America very well, but I can do my best to show them the value of being an individual, which is something we value very strongly.

I like to write. I'm quiet. I like Japanese culture and food. I'm a health freak. I'm a dozen other things Japanese people would never expect of an American.

I like to show them I can be a different sort of American. Still raised there, with their values and mannerisms, but with my own unique identity and interests. Since I'm basically a model on display for them to judge Americans by, I think this is immensely helpful in showing them that there are ways to be different without completely disrupting the framework you exist within.

I'm definitely American. I like to do my own thing. I like to talk about myself and my own opinions a lot, and I love food. But I'm also distinctly different from a stereotypical American in many, many ways.

Individuality isn't valued here. But everyone has it, because they're human. I think one of the best parts of being an ALT is showing and proving that that individuality is something special, something worth clinging to, and something that you don't have to give up the group identity to embrace.